Each and every year I begin my breakdown of running backs in pass protection by reminding everyone that there’s more to the position than just rushing. Sure, it’s more important what they do with the ball in their hands, but having a back who can pick up the blitz and keep pressure off his quarterback is an invaluable tool that provides offenses with an extra level of protection and versatility.

Normally, this article would give me an opportunity to wax lyrical about Clinton Portis (the 2008-2010 king of the pass-protecting backs), but with him taking the year off, who would step up and establish themselves as the new man to beat?

Let’s break down those pass blocking backs!

(For the purpose of this article, we only looked at running backs who stayed into pass protect at least 50 times and note that we do not count chip blocks as a pass block).

Staying In

The place to start when looking at backs in pass pro, is to see which of them are doing it most frequently. If nothing else, it shows as which teams either have faith in their guy … or which just need an extra body in there to make up for what’s on the offensive line. Rather interestingly, it’s Michael Bush, formerly of the Raiders, who led the league in staying into pass block in 2011, doing so on 144 occasions. That was four more times than every-down back LeSean McCoy of the Philadelphia Eagles, and six more times than Frank Gore. The conclusion? If you’re going to be an every-down guy, you’re going to need to earn the trust of your coaches in pass protection.

Rank

Name

Team

Pass Block Snaps

1

Michael Bush

OAK

144

2

LeSean McCoy

PHI

140

3

Frank Gore

SF

138

4

Steven Jackson

SL

122

5

Ahmad Bradshaw

NYG

105

6

Beanie Wells

ARZ

103

7

Ray Rice

BLT

102

8

Kregg Lumpkin

TB

97

9

Jonathan Stewart

CAR

96

10

Adrian L. Peterson

MIN

83

It’s All Relative

A number of greater significance than how many times a back stayed in, is what percentage of times a back stayed in relative to the number of passing plays they were a part of. There are a number of possibilities why backs Jackie Battle and Daniel Thomas spent nearly half of their passing plays blocking, be it a lack of faith in their work as a receiver or a lack of faith in their offensive lines’ blocking. However you want to spin it (and it should be noted both men gave up little pressure), you can’t ignore that they spent a significantly higher percentage of time blocking than other backs, which probably has a little something to do with cautious coaches doing everything they can to keep their quarterback upright.

Rank

Name

Team

Passing Plays

Pass Block Snaps

Pass Block %

1

Jackie Battle

KC

136

64

47.1

2

Daniel Thomas

MIA

177

79

44.6

3

Isaac Redman

PIT

194

77

39.7

4

Frank Gore

SF

352

138

39.2

5

Ahmad Bradshaw

NYG

281

105

37.4

6

Michael Bush

OAK

385

144

37.4

7

Felix Jones

DAL

207

74

35.7

8

Beanie Wells

ARZ

293

103

35.2

9

Joseph Addai

IND

216

74

34.3

10

Adrian L. Peterson

MIN

248

83

33.5

Feeling the Pressure

So we’ve looked at who is staying in the most often, now how about who is giving up the most pressure? In sheer numerical terms, that man is LeSean McCoy who gave up a sack, three hits, and 14 hurries. You have to feel for McCoy, he’s not helped by having nobody to spell him, nor by having a quarterback who is always going to hold onto the ball more than others. That number is still alarmingly high, but at least McCoy is a feature back. Imagine being Kregg Lumpkin, a third-down back who gave up 16 combined sacks, hits, and hurries. If you’re on the field in obvious passing situations, you simply need to do better than that.

Rank

Name

Team

Sacks Allowed

Hits Allowed

Hurries Allowed

Total Pressure Allowed

1

LeSean McCoy

PHI

1

3

14

18

2

Kregg Lumpkin

TB

3

3

10

16

3

Jonathan Stewart

CAR

1

1

10

12

4

Frank Gore

SF

2

0

8

10

5t

Reggie Bush

MIA

2

4

3

9

5t

Michael Bush

OAK

2

2

5

9

5t

Ray Rice

BLT

2

1

6

9

5t

Steven Jackson

SL

1

2

6

9

5t

Matt Forte

CHI

1

1

7

9

10t

Chris Ogbonnaya

CLV

4

0

4

8

10t

Beanie Wells

ARZ

2

1

5

8

Pass Blocking Efficiency

But so what if you gave up some pressure, if you were staying into block a lot? That’s where our Pass Blocking Efficiency signature stat comes in handy. A simple enough formula, we take the combined number of sacks, hits, and hurries (where hits and hurries are worth three quarters that of a sack), divide it by the number of pass blocks and take that away from zero. Like this:

What this tells us is that there isn’t a better back in the league (at least in 2011) than Fred Jackson. But then you don’t need a fancy formula to figure that out as the Bill was the only running back not to give up a single QB disruption all year. That was one less than the Atlanta Falcon duo of Jason Snelling and Michael Turner who each gave up just one piece of pressure to finish second and third.

Rank

Name

Team

Pass Block Snaps

Total Pressure Allowed

PBE

1

Fred Jackson

BUF

83

0

100.0

2

Michael Turner

ATL

72

1

99.0

3

Jason Snelling

ATL

57

1

98.2

4

Roy Helu

WAS

78

2

98.1

5

Donald Brown

IND

68

2

97.8

6

Dexter McCluster

KC

65

2

97.7

7

Jackie Battle

KC

64

2

97.7

8

James Starks

GB

71

2

97.5

9

Ahmad Bradshaw

NYG

105

4

97.1

10

LeGarrette Blount

TB

58

2

97.0

Down at the other end of the scale, there’s no surprise that Lumpkin finished at the bottom, though at least he didn’t give up the most sacks of any running back. That dubious honor went to Chris Ogbonnaya who was responsible for four sacks, and finished second from the low end in the PBE rankings. Sometimes teams just end up asking too much out of limited talents and that was certainly the case with Ogbonnaya.

Rank

Name

Team

Pass Block Snaps

Total Pressure Allowed

PBE

32

Ray Rice

BLT

102

9

92.9

33

Peyton Hillis

CLV

73

7

92.5

34

DeAngelo Williams

CAR

57

5

92.5

35

Justin Forsett

SEA

55

6

91.4

36

Matt Forte

CHI

75

9

90.7

37

Jonathan Stewart

CAR

96

12

90.4

38

LeSean McCoy

PHI

140

18

90.2

39

Reggie Bush

MIA

74

9

90.2

40

Chris Ogbonnaya

CLV

67

8

89.6

41

Kregg Lumpkin

TB

97

16

86.9

It will not (nor should it) ever be as important a part of playing running back as rushing the ball, but there’s something to be said for a running back that can prevent pressure from getting to his quarterback. Each unnecessary hit a quarterback takes could be the one that puts them out for the season, so we here at Pro Football Focus can only doth our collective caps to the Jacksons, Turners and Snellings of this world for preventing that. Their thankless task need be thankless no more.

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